The Practice of Your Life

The Exercise and Pursuit of a Consciously Created Life

In defense of Gossiping

Dec 22
2009

In my last post I wrote about the Consequences of Gossiping and like most things in life there are many shades of grey.  Below there is an amusing story about gossiping that suggests that while you are well advised to remove yourself from gossip it is not wise to be completely oblivious to it.

Here’s the story (by way of Kim Davis – Thanks Kim):

“In ancient Greece (469 – 399 BC) Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, “Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?”

“Wait a moment,” Socrates replied. “Before you tell me I’d like you to pass a… Continue reading

Context for the “Space”

Oct 10
2008

I posted before about our ability to create a space between stimulus and response. This is of course not Nobel Prize submission material, yet it’s one of those truisms that is so often taken for granted.

What I want to say here is that a practice of creating that Space will be a difficult one to implement, or maybe even impossible without a context for your life.  By context I mean a story about you, who you are, what your values are, and what you’re creating with your life.  If you’re not clear on what your goals are in life and therefore how your colleagues at work, your family at home, your neighbors and members in your communities all fit into your life, you’ll have difficulty making… Continue reading

The window

Jun 15
2008

From my bed I can see the Chrysler building through my bedroom window. What a magnificent structure. It seems to blend the best of the old with the new and I’m struck by the paucity of words that I have to describe the beauty of the building. As I look at the buildings around the Chrysler building I realize that there are other beautiful buildings that I know nothing about. I don’t even know their names.

Interesting. My window affords me this wonderful view of one of the greatest cities in the world, and after two years of looking through it I know no more about the buildings that I look upon than on the day I first looked at this view.

Well, that’s not entirely true.

I now… Continue reading